Fine Cooking

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Fine Cooking magazine provides readers with the techniques and recipes needed to create a variety of great-tasting foods. Each issue includes numerous unique and delicious recipes as well as helpful tips and guidelines to ensure that each recipe you try at home turns out as beautiful and tasty as it appears in the magazine photos.

The content within Fine Cooking magazine incorporates everyday recipes, party ideas, and helpful holiday dishes. You also receive plenty of cooking tips and advice on how to improve your skills in the kitchen, which can be especially helpful for beginner cooks or those unfamiliar with a particular technique or recipe style. For those who find the weeknights too busy for making elaborate meals, Fine Cooking Magazine contains several quick and easy recipes that can be prepared within thirty minutes.

To appeal to a broad range of readers, Fine Cooking Magazine focuses on all types of foods and recipes and always includes some healthy and delicious vegetarian entrees and side dishes in each issue. This can be helpful if you have some family members who are vegetarians and others who are not, allowing you to prepare a variety of dishes that will satisfy everyone at the table.

Fine Cooking Magazine is a great option if you are looking for new recipe ideas and some inspiration in the kitchen. It also makes a great gift for family or friends who are avid cooks and will appreciate the numerous cooking tips, techniques, and gorgeous recipe photos.

Product Description

For people with an avid interest in the pleasures of cooking. Includes detailed information on food, food preparation and principles of good cooking.

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Product Details

• Format: Magazine
• Shipping: Currently, item can be shipped only within the U.S.
• Publisher: Taunton Press
• ASIN: B000WPCN2G
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (26 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #230 in Magazines (See Top 100 in Magazines)
  • #19 in Magazines > Food & Gourmet
This magazine subscription is provided by Magazine Express, Inc.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

63 of 69 people found the following review helpful

2.0 out of 5 stars Editors Ruined Magazine w/New Format July 10, 2009

By Bengoshi

Subscription Term Name:1 year

I agree with every single review here that gives Fine Cooking five stars. It was always my favorite food magazine -- with the focus on proper technique, rather than upon fancy pictures put together by food "stylists," rather than cooks.

"Was" is the operative word though. This year Fine Cooking felt it had to "fix" something that was nowhere near "broke" and they turned FC into exactly the "food stylist" type of magazine that had sent me into the arms of Fine Cooking to begin with. The new format is all style over substance; indeed, there are so many "pretty" stylized pictures that it is now difficult to read -- the text gets lost.

FC also lost the unique personal style from the original FC -- the old format had these simple articles, oftentimes with a cook giving you the take on a single technique or ingredient. The cook was right there with you, with their hands on the food, and their smiling face beaming at you the beginning of the article. It looked like real food being cooked in front of you by a real person, rather than stylized food being glossed up with shellac before a hot camera.

Alas, that is all gone now. There are still a few good recipes, such as the excellent "Grill Braising" article by Bruce Aidells (my guess is that Bruce was under contract before they changed the format). But why wasn't Bruce in the shots, instead of these picture-perfect creations? And why did the text have to be so difficult to read?

I can say I am not alone in my disdain; others I know here were also heartbroken when the format changed, and the online blogs and FC's own blog included many angered by the change. Some did like it -- but then there are lots of people who do like these "stylized" publications, I'm just not one of them. Its just not what I looked for in Fine Cooking. My subscription has now lapsed, although I hope they bring back the old format (my guess is that they lost many subscribers).

In any event -- I thought that this review was necessary to give fair warning to those reading the OLD reviews about the OLD FC format. "New" is not always necessarily "improved."

UPDATE: Alas, FC remains ruined, but I found a great way to stoke my old flame: I started buying back issues of FC on eBay starting from February 1994. I had only started reading FC in 2000, so now I have 6 years of back issues. What a joy, they still pop with timeless articles showcasing fine food and techniques. But here is the real reason for my upgraded post. In the very first issue, the Publisher Jan Wahlin set out the "mission statement" of Fine Cooking and it is telling:

"[A]s you can see from this first issue, Fine Cooking is not just another food magazine. Its about the _hows_, and more importantly, the _whys_ of cooking. Its written by cooks, for cooks like you. The photos are not just pretty pictures taken on a set, using props to accent finished dishes. These are photos of real cooks in real kitchen." FC, No. 1, Feb/March 1994, at 4 (emphasis in original)

If only the present editors would read that mission statement and return to FC's roots. I really wish Alice Waters, or someone else, would buy the franchise and bring it back to its old glory. Bengoshi

17 of 17 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars One of the Best Cooking Magazines November 12, 2007

By Marie M-M

Subscription Term Name:1 year|Amazon Verified Purchase

This is one of the few magazines that I read EVERY article. I always find multiple recipes to use, often times heading to the kitchen, before I've even made it through the magazine. What few ads there are, are relevant, and have made me head to the internet to find out more info about the products advertised. I've given this magazine as a gift to many friends and family members.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent Recipes May 27, 2008

By S. Martir

Subscription Term Name:1 year

I have been buying this magazine for years now and have not found an issue that I do not like. I found this magazine focuses on useful tips and strategies to make cooking much easier. Some (a few) of the recipes call for ingredients not readily available in my kitchen but overall I can either find the ingredients or find substitutes. Also, in most of the issues the staff rates different appliances (this month is steak knives, and graters). Overall I recommend this magazine to both all my friends and family.